Question

"In order to monitor fisher esterification you have avaliable melting point, thin layer chromatography(TLC), and gas chromatography(GC). Only one of these methods will be useful. Which method will be more useful and why? Why would the other methods fail for this purpose?"

Please provide a detailed answer for BOTH questions as I am looking for a complete understanding and explanation. If you cannot provide one PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER!!! Thank you!!!

Answer 1

You can monitor your reaction using TLC. But in TLC you will get the corresponding spots of your compounds (reactants and products or side products even if you have traces of it. You can identify the formation of product by observing a new spot (other than reactants) in TLC. But using TLC you can't determine the percentage of conversion in the reaction.

Using melting point as a technique to monitor a reaction is not a good idea. Since the impure compounds will always have a lower melting point than the pure compound. If your reaction is 100% completion, still you will have some impurity in the product unless you purify it completely. But its always a good idea to check the melting point if you have purified the product.

Gas chromatography(GC) is the most useful technique to monitor your reaction. Using GC you will come to know the extent of reaction. When you inject the reaction mixture in GC, it will give the percentage of each compound in the reaction mixture. Hence you will come to know, what amount (or %) of the reaction has proceeded.

So, GC is the best technique among these three techniques.